March 5, 2013

Coordinator of university's LGBT Resource Center earns national award

Kansas State University's LGBT Resource Center has been open for less than three years, but it's already having an award-winning impact.

Brandon Haddock, student services coordinator at the center, is receiving the Campus Pride Voice and Action National Leadership Award for Advisers for his work at the center, which is the first full-time resource center for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals at an institution of higher learning in Kansas.

The award honors individuals who use their voice to speak up and take action to make a difference. Campus Pride is an organization for student leaders and campus groups working to create a safer college environment for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender students. Its Voice and Action National Leadership Awards Program is an honorary national recognition program highlighting the outstanding accomplishments of members of the progressive community and ally young adult leaders and those who work to support issues related to this community at colleges and universities across the United States.

Haddock, who is also a doctoral student in geography, is receiving his award at the American College Personnel Association convention, March 3-7, in Las Vegas. He was nominated for the honor by Caleb Kueser, a Kansas State University student and member of Delta Lambda Phi, a progressive men's fraternity on campus.

"I am really grateful for the opportunity to represent Kansas State University and our LGBT Resource Center and community," Haddock said. "This award, the Campus Pride Voice in Action Adviser Award, is really humbling to me. I simply try and do what is best for our students and community."

Haddock has served with center since it opened in fall 2010 and said response to the center is positive and that it has been making a difference on campus and in the community since its doors opened.

"As with any organization or office, it does take time for knowledge of one's presence to be known on a wide scale. I feel that I have been very proactive in making sure that our campus community knows that there is a resource for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, faculty and staff," Haddock said. "Over the past three years we have seen the expansion of needs in our community and an expansion of the events and educational opportunities that we provide to not only our LGBT campus community, but the K-State family as a whole."

Haddock works with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender student organizations on campus, serves as a resource person for the well-being and safety of progressive students, faculty and staff, and creates programming, outreach and advocacy to help educate the campus.

He said among the center's major accomplishments is hosting the annual LGBT Leadership Conference.

"K-State continues to set the bar for Kansas higher education facilities in that we host one of the only such conferences, we have the only full-time resource center and we have a diverse number of student organizations that are LGBT specific," he said.

Haddock plans to finish his doctoral work in January 2014. He hopes to continue working with students and helping to educate people on issues affecting the progressive community. Haddock is a graduate of Missouri State University, Springfield, Mo., where he earned a bachelor's in geography, geology and planning, and a master's in geospatial science.